Raised beds

No, nothing to do with sleeping on stilts. I like gardening (hey it's not a crime!), and I only have a small ish garden. It was in a mess when we moved in 2 years ago - nothing but weeds and mud. It's turning around and I've got some small borders now, but nowhere to grow my veg. So I've decided that a small portion of a straggly lawn (which the kids don't play on anyway) will be given over to a raised bed. All I have to do is build it, and then away we go......Ha ha - you obviously haven't heard about my DIY skills.........

City on the up

Well, no sooner said than done. A 1-2 win at Wolves, despite their ridiculous fan ban, and then City 3 - Leicester 2. We tried to give it away in the final few minutes, but held on for the win thanks to a stunning hat trick from Michael Chopra. That's 4 in 2 games for "Chops". Maybe it's turning round for us.

City woes

I can't understand what's happening at Cardiff City - almost 2 months at the top of the table earlier this season, and all the talk was of of Premiership action next season (I thought this might have been a tad premature I'll have you believe), and now we're 8th, although only 3 points of 4th spot. We can't win a game to save our life, and can't score to get the win. I missed our last home win against Burnley in November, which means I haven't see them win since October!

We need a bit of luck - performances have improved generally since Christmas, but currently everything's conspiring against us. I still think a play off spot is agood target. Come on you Blooobirds!

New Year in the Gower

You'll have seen in an earlier post about how I managed to "fry" my phone whilst away at New Year. Well, here's where we went. A small, incongruous hut right at the far end of the Gower penninsula in South West Wales, a few hundred yards from the beach. The weather was a lot worse than it looked here! The accomodation can best be described as "functional", but it served it's purpose. It' even got an outside fridge for keeping the beer cold. Oh well, okay, the outside IS the frdige!! Anyway, so long as you don't mind sleeping bags and bunks, it's fine, and all of our party who went enjoyed themselves. There's a big cooker, microwave, a log burning stove, showers, toilets (yes, all that in that little tin shed, so it can be a bit cramped), but if you don't might semi "roughing" it for a few days it's great! The hut's actually a National Trust property, known as "Gower Base Camp". It's used by the NT as a base for people who are working on NT matters in the area, but can also be hired out privately, as we did, for about a tenner a night per person. I think there were about 14 of us at the time.

It's close to Llanmadoc village, but a good 30 minute stomp from the Brittania Inn. Set amongst pine trees and sand dunes, on a huge windswept beach, it's a great place to get away from it all.

Digital Deliverance

Subsequent to my last post, I've come to understand the relief that is insurance. My very friendly and helpful insurance company, who shall remain nameless, but have the words "Liverpool" and "Victoria" in it's title, have dcereed that the damage was "accidental" and my smartphone is covered under a "new" for "old" replacement cover. This is particualrly joyous, in that my fried smartphone isn't available new any more, and so I can essentially upgrade to the latest model (in fact the new model is cheaper than the old one was anyway!). So, hopefully tomorrow, I'll be the owner of a shiny new Treo 680. Result!

Digital Disaster

Yesterday my smartphone was OK. Then I had a go on one of these games where you have to thread a loop around a twisted wire without touching the wire or BAM you get an electric shock. I got a shock. My smartphone, which was in my pocket, got fried - or at least the screen did. No I have a choice. Either try and replace the screen - minimum £50 and a bit of hope - if I can find one and if it works, or buy a new smartphone (a nice shiny new upgraded model). My heart says get a new phone, my head (or more explicitly my bank account) says go for the replacement screen.......

Happy New Year

Well it's 3.15pm on New Year's Eve and I'm with my wife and friends in a pub at the end of the Gower penninsula. Great! Happy New Year to you all!

Merry Christmas!

If anyone's reading this, have a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

How neat is this?

This posting has been written and submitted on my Palm Treo 650 smartphone. Now I can blog from anywhere!

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

Remember Christmas?

Well. Here we are again. Hardly a year gone, and it's time for tinsel once more. I was looking for a Christmas card for my wife the other day in one of those high street card shops. Unlike me, my wife has strong faith, and I was looing for a card that represented at least in passing, what Christmas is all about. Could I find one? Could I? No.

If wanted cuddly bears, hearts, flowers and so on I was fine. Even the odd snowman was around. Robins were in short supply, and I actually found one card that had a picture of a church on it. But Mary, Joseph, a star or even God forbid the baby Jesus. Nowwhere in sight.

Around me on the high street people were rushing around like idiots spending money on things that will be son forgotten or discarded, without even a thought as to why we exchange gifts on December 25th. The supermarkets are even worse, with people buying like there's a food shortage on the horizon - and they'll all be open again on Boxing Day or the day after at the latest...

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a religious zealot, and in fact find it terribly hard to have any faith at all, and have respect for those that do, but at least I understand and remember what Christmas is about. Shame the rest of the world is forgetting....

Do you ever wonder...

Sadly I can't take the credit for these ponderisms...

• I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
• The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.
• Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
• There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.
• Life is sexually transmitted.
• Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
• The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
• Some people are like Slinkies. Not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
• Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
• Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?
• All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
• In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
• How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
• Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?"
• Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there? I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its butt."
• Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
• If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
• If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
• Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
• Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?
• Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?
• Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

Things that annoy me

What you must remember is I'm knocking 47, so could be classed as a grumpy middle aged git. Some things really get my goat. In no particular order of preference:
1. Queues (of any sort)
2. Middle lane hoggers on motorways. Should have their licences taken away.
3. Motorists who don't indicate. Ditto
4. Speed cameras (is there a theme developing here?)
5. Teaspoons. There's always one left when you empty the washing up bowl
6. Wind (weather wind as opposed to farts, which is just nature)
7. Unpunctuality. It's mostly just lazy
8. Lack of respect for the environment
9. Mondays, and to a lessening extent, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
10.Goats

Bugger!

This is useless - so busy doing other things haven't posted anything since April. If anyone was reading this blog, they've long since given up. I'm going to try again, and I WILL make an effort to post frequently.

First however dear reader, you'll need a quick catch up of events since April. Here goes:

• Did lot's of gardening - enjoy gardening
• Played some cricket - enjoy cricket
• Built a website for my new cricket team Dinas Powys CC
• Tweaked and edited said website a lot
• Went on holiday to France - enjoy holidays
• Went to Disneyland Paris whilst in France - enjoy rollercoasters
• Bought wine whilst in France - enjoy wine
• Did some decorating - hate decorating
• Worked a lot - hate work
• Watched Cardiff City climb to be 6 points clear at the top of the Championship (at the time of posting - Premiership here we come!
• Watched in disbelief at England's poor showing in a) world Cup b) Euro 2008 qualifiers
• Haven't won lottery - would like to win lottery
• Enjoyed start to new skittles season DPAB

Allotments

The other day I was browsing the web, as you do and my mind turned to allotments as it does occasionally (saddo!) Anyway, a search for "allotments brought up a number of links, one of with was Plotholes. This Blog, is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Bupster - she of the Plotholes Blog, really should be in print (I guess she is on her Blog) and they could even make a television series out of it. Far funnier than "The Good Life". Well recommended......

Cricket lovely cricket

Today was supposed to be the first "warm up game" of the season, but our opposition couldn't raise a team. Bummer.
Anyway, we turned up and decided to play a 6/7 a-side match to get the rhythm going. Went well. Scored a few runs with my new bat (the last one having been cracked into two pieces at the last net session), bowled reasonably, took a catch and got a wicket. Bones ache a bit tonight, but hey I'm 46....Let's see how they are tomorrow. Dinas lads are a good bunch and Im looking forward to the seasom immensely

Water water everywhere....

I'm getting more "eco" friendly in my advancing years and I decided to purchase a small (100 litre) water butt to give me water for the garden instead of racking up water charges via my water meter (not that we need to save much water in Wales - plenty to go round!).
I installed it this weeekend with one of those rain diverter thingies off my conservatory roof downpipe (the conservatory is small - only 10x8 ft. It rained "a bit" today and when i got home it was 3/4 full! That's 75 litres of water from one wet day! It must have rained more than I thought (LOL), but begs the question, why aren't water butts compulsory - especially in the SE where they have hosepipe bans even in the middle of winter because there's not enough H20 to go around. If that much rain is swishing away down drains everytime it rains it's no wonder we haven't got any water. You'd be mad not to have one. I might have to order a second one now!
Oops, if I'm not careful I'll be after an allotment next.......

Center Parcs

Just had a great break in Center Parcs (the Longleat Forest village). We've been before, but not for a few years and now the kids are older (11 and 8) they can just go off and do their own thing in the swimming pool which basically means about 3 hours worth of hurtling down the rapids and the slides!
If you've never been to Center Parcs, it's a geat experience. You can just laze by the pool, bike in the forest (no cars!) or do any one of a multitude of sports from table tennis to archery and horse riding. The only catch is the cost. The pool's free(or at least access comes with the cost of the holiday), everything else (apart from the bikes if you bring your own) you pay for, so it can get expensive. We had a great time on our midweek (Mon-Fri) break. The "villa's" look a bit like portakabins but inside are comfy enough, though you can get posher versions (more money). The famouse dome houses the pools, slides shops and various restaurants. the feeling you get is a proper mini break - away from it all in the sense there's no cars and time to do what you want when you want. Relaxing - well - it depends. I got more exercise in 4 days than I've had in the last four weeks, with swimming, biking and so on! Great fun.

Out of retirement

After a year (or more like 18 months) off cricket, having officially retired from the game due to dodgy knees/arthritis, I've been talked into coming out of retirement by my good pal Basher (aka Badger - for various and probably best left unexplained reasons).
I'm planning - if they'll have me, to turn out for Dinas Powys CC rather than the Tavs, my team of the last 20 years. It's been a wrench deciding not to go back to the Tavs, but the chance, albeit a little late in my career to play some league cricket with a side where I can just turn up and play is quite enticing. I've only been to one net so far as unfortunately nest night clashes with skittles nights most weeks, but I enjoyed the net. Indeed the facilities at Glamorgan CC's indoor cricket facilities are superb. I think I did OK, and the DPCC lot (several of whom I know anyway) seem a good bunch. Roll on the summer, and let's hope the bones hold up!

Sporting Heaven

My it's been a sporting week.
Wednesday I played skittles and did pretty well.
Thursday I played skittles again and was crap.
Friday was mini-football training.
Saturday was mini-football - the Sully Seahawks won 4-0 against a good Cowbridge side. Well done lads - clean sheet!
Saturday pm, the Bluebirds beat Burnely 3-0. First half was abysmal. Second half they got better. New signing Steve "The Tomahawk" Thompson (formerly of Ranger no less) bagged a brace, and "Super Jase" (Jason Koumas)finsihed the game off. 8th spot - playoff's here we come!

Arsenal

 
Well we lost and to a predictably under strength Arsenal side - but a side that still contained Bergkamp, Pires, van Persie and Reyes - he who falls over in a puff of wind.
The Bluebirds did us proud though, and didn't capitulate despite going 2-0 down quite early on, and played pretty well throughout. Support was massive and vocal, unlike Arsenal's. "Highbury's a library...shhhhh" was sung thoughout!
Only blot on the day was the trains. Missed out connection at Bath Spa because our original train was late, had to wait an hour for the next one. That one's arrival was delayed 20 mins for God knows what which meant we missed the first 10 mins of the match. Bugger! Should have been there by about 12, actually got into the ground at 1:13. The journey back was almost as bad - supposed to be a straight run through to Newport - it was - again via Bath though, and took amost 2:40min.
And the goverment wonders why people hate public transport?